Headcanon Meme: Drace, Penelo, Basch, Noah - Question 1
1. What does their bedroom look like?
In certain cases, bedroom descriptions include or morph into apartment or house descriptions because that is more appropriate. (This post is far longer than most that will come, which is why it took me a while. ^^)
= DRACE =
Drace has a sizable apartment on the south-east side of the Archadian Palace that she shares with (warning: my headcanon is weird ^^) her husband, Magister Bergan. They’ve known each other since their pre-teen years. Their bedroom is large, airy, and decorated in light, neutral colors. Large windows line the south and east walls of the room, with white sheer fabric curtains. You get the feeling of being up in the sky when in their bedroom-a feeling of being above and removed from the earthly problems that mere mortals in Archades must deal with day to day.
Their king-sized bed has crisp white linens covered with an ecru silk bedspread. A portrait of Bergan’s family hangs on the wall across from a portrait of Drace’s family. She find it creepy that the eyes of her family and Bergan’s family watch her when she sleeps or, worse, when having perfunctory sex with her husband. (Or, even worse yet, while carrying on her affair with Gabranth… One time she threw towels over the portraits because she couldn’t stand their accusatory eyes watching her.)
= PENELO =
Penelo’s bedroom in her family’s home before Archadia invaded Dalmasca was a sunny room on the third floor of a townhouse in the north end of Rabanastre. The room had windows facing south and east. The morning sun always woke Penelo up and made her into an early riser. The look of her room would be best described as “intricately organized clutter.” She decorated her room with mementos given to her by her friends and her older brothers, plus a large collection of souvenirs her father brought back when traveling for business. One of her favorite possessions was a beautifully detailed, colorful paper kite that her father brought back from Bhujerba. It hung from the ceiling of her room. She had a set of cockatrice plushy dolls that sit on her bed: a big papa cockatrice, a chubby mama cockatrice, and three round baby cockatrices. These dolls are ridiculously cute.
At age thirteen Penelo became interested in making herbal potions. Her mother helped her set up a workbench in one corner of her room where Penelo dried medicinal plants and prepared herbal medicines. Over the next two years, her medicinal chemistry workbench grew in size. Rows of brightly colored glass phials holding tinctures sat in the east-facing windows sill.
When Archadia invaded Dalmasca, Penelo lost her family, their townhouse, almost all of her possessions (although she would trade anything to get her family back). During those next two years, she lived in tiny room above Migelo’s shop and absolutely everything she owned fit into a small trunk next to her bed.
After Archadia withdrew from Dalmasca, Penelo continued to live above Migelo’s shop for the next six months until she* was able to get legal paperwork proving that her family’s town home is rightfully hers. All of her prior possessions were missing, presumably removed or thrown out by the Archadian family that lived in her home during the two years of occupation. She initially paid little attention to her room because she was far more worried about getting some of the orphans settled in (Filo, Kytes), and taking care of cranky, ill-tempered, paraplegic Noah. Eventually she decorated her room with Bhujerban style furnishings - low wooden frames carved with a folk-art style and an overabundance of colorful pillows - although she often slept at least half of each night in a chaise lounge in Noah’s room. …And, as time passed, in Noah’s bed.
* Technically, it was Noah who handled the legal paperwork that returned Penelo’s property to her. My headcanon has one odd little addition: Basch & Larsa put near-death!Noah in Penelo’s care. Noah survived thanks to Penelo’s care but that injuries he received from Vayne left the lower half of Noah’s body paralyzed.
=BASCH & NOAH =
- Basch & Noah’s shared bedroom during childhood -
During childhood, Basch and Noah shared a bedroom in their family’s manor. From the outside, the manor looks imposing because it rises up from the hill that it is built on top of, and it is surrounded by a heavy wall, with the village of Ronsenburg around it (Ronsenburg is a small port city-and barely a city at all, as it is really more of a village, although it does have a proper city wall around it, and the manor is more of a house than a castle, yet the manor is substantial in size).
The walls of the manor are heavy stone, and many of the private rooms are small and the bedroom that the twins shared was only large enough for two beds, two small desks, and one wardrobe. The room had one narrow window facing west. A handwoven woolen rug covered the space on the floor between their beds (Noah’s bed ran against the room’s north wall, Basch’s against the south wall) and their two dog slept in their room, on that rug. Basch’s side of the room always looked lived in, if not a bit messy. Noah’s side was always neatly in order. During the cold half of the year, their room was very drafty and, when they were young, Noah and Basch often slept in the same bed so they wouldn’t freeze in the middle of the night. Once they were well into their teens, Noah and Basch were far more likely to let their dogs sleep with them in their respective beds on cold winter nights. For both of them, their bedroom was primarily for sleeping and most of their other activities were carried out elsewhere.
(Noah did manage to impregnate a girl on Basch’s bed, while Basch wasn’t there. Landis was edging toward civil war just before Archades invaded. For political reasons, Basch was being betrothed to the daughter of another manor lord but Basch felt forced into the situation and was concerned about the hurried nature of the match given that the girl’s family had “temporarily” fled their demesne because of a peasant revolt. The girl was desperate, Noah was willing, one thing led to another, and… as it ended up, Basch was officially betrothed to her once she was officially declared pregnant. >_<)
- Basch in Dalmasca -
Basch spent almost 10 years (ack… I would need to dig through my fiction to figure out the exact number of years) living in the Dalmascan Royal Military barracks, although a significant portion of those nights were spent sleeping under the stars or in a tent while patrolling trade routes in the estersands or westersands. All of Basch’s important belongings fit inside his pack.
When Basch and Vossler were both promoted to the rank of Captain, they received a sizable suite of rooms in the Royal Palace, housed in the same wing as the royal family. (Vossler was tasked with guarding the royal family. Basch was promoted to commanding one of the divisions of the royal army.) The rooms in their spacious suite were decorated richly in Galtean style. Basch spent little time in his palace suite. Instead, he was often with “his men” - the battalion of soldiers under his command - either out on a mission, in their barracks, or even renting rooms in the Sandsea. Basch’s hands-on approach to being an army captain is largely the reason why he was known as a hero of the people.
- Noah in Archades -
Upon arriving in Archades late in 687 O.V., Noah and his mother moved into a run down apartment in a building owned by Noah’s uncle (his mother’s brother). His uncle was a “slum lord” who owned a half dozen apartment buildings in the seediest parts of Archades. Noah and his mother received free rent in exchange for acting as the manager for their apartment block. The job was a terrible nightmare because many of the tenants were deadbeats, and there were problems with domestic violence, crime, and vandalism. Noah’s bedroom was a horrid, little grey room that smelled like mold. He lived there for a year that he greatly prefers to forget.
Shortly after Noah’s mother died, he received a full scholarship to study at the Akademy and he immediately packed his few belongings and moved into a dormitory bedroom that he shared with five other Akademy students. Noah was quick to claim the upper bunk bed close to the window. He was able to claim the “best bunk” because he was two years older than the other freshmen and, despite him being a Landiser, his other roommates found respect for him because Noah had “lived a real life” - Noah had gone on hunts and fought in battles in Landis, he had gotten a girl pregnant, and he lived the adventure of fleeing the Landis war. Thus, his roommates saw him as a real combat veteran, which earned Noah enough status to claim the best bunk. No one in his dorm room touched Noah’s things, ever, without asking his permission.
Noah’s final year at the Akademy was fraught with difficulties because he was assigned to a secret military mission that provided aid for one of Dr. Cid’s more questionable experiments. Noah actually had the balls to refuse on moral grounds and ask for a transfer. He thought he was doing the right thing but he was rewarded (*cough*) by being “granted” temporary leave from the Akademy until his case was reviewed (note: because Noah was on full scholarship when putting Dr. Cid’s work in question, the Akademy administrators put a hold on his scholarship and stipend. Had he been the son of a wealthy and powerful family, the situation might have played out very differently for Noah and for Dr. Cid). Noah was effectively tossed out on the street. The only connection that Noah had outside of the Akademy (beyond his slum lord uncle) was the YPA Shipwrights because, as an Akademy student, he had worked with some of the engineers at YPA on the design and configuration of surveillance systems outfitted on airships. Thus, he swallowed his pride (in one big lump that stuck in his throat) and went to YPA to beg for any kind of assistance they would give him: drafting work, a small loan for rent, anything.
Fran offered Noah a spare key to her apartment in Trant and crash space on her sofa. She figured that Noah would only stay for a few days, perhaps a week at most. Instead, Noah ended up living with Fran for almost seven years. (He also finished his education at the Akademy, but using his own money.) Noah’s bedroom in Fran’s Trant apartment was cluttered but very meticulously organized. Every item had its place and every inch of space was put to use. Their bedroom looked like a cross between an engineer’s workbench, a curio shop, an academic library, and a place for sleeping. One day in the year 700 O.V., Fran disappeared rather suddenly (as did a prototype reconnaissance airship, and Dr. Cid’s third son). At that point, Noah Gabranth was working for the 9th bureau as a upper-mid-level analyst who was responsible for managing the Western Landis Provincial intelligence desk. The sudden disappearance of a stolen top secret reconnaissance airship (along with Fran, a contractor who worked for YPA Shipwrights, plus Judge Ffamran Bunansa) resulted in a hush-hush investigation and, as Fran’s longtime live-in partner, Gabranth’s loyalties to the 9th were called into question. After he was deemed innocent of any wrongdoing, he was offered a fast path to a series of promotions in the 9th that would lead him to becoming a magister a few years later.
Immediately upon accepting this offer, Judge Gabranth moved into the Imperial Palace and was housed in the high security quarters offered to top-level judges and military commanders. Each time Judge Gabranth’s rank and responsibilities increased, his housing assignment improved. When he earned the rank of a full Judge Magister (in 704 O.V.), Gabranth moved into a 200 sq meter (~2150 sq foot) penthouse apartment with double-height ceilings, expansive views of the Archadian city skyline, and a small but beautifully maintained enclosed courtyard garden. His bedroom, like the rest of his apartment, was decorated with elegant furnishings, tasteful pieces of art, and silk rugs with intricate hand-knotted patterns. Absolutely everything was immaculately maintained thanks to the maid service and his manservant. Yet, the apartment lacked any sense of a personal touch. Absolutely nothing in the apartment had been picked out or purchased by Gabranth himself.
- The After Year -
When Basch took up the role of Judge Magister Gabranth, he moved into the swank penthouse in the Imperial Palace and slowly, over the years, added personal touches to the bedroom and other rooms in the apartment: traditional tapestries from Landis and Dalmasca, rustic works of folk art from Bhujerba, and the world’s most comfortable leather lounge chair.
Immediately after Vayne’s defeat, Noah spent three weeks in a near-death state. Once it was clear to Penelo that Noah’s condition had stabilized, she had him moved to a storeroom behind Migelo’s shop. Thus began war criminal!paraplegic!Noah’s new life… He eventually helped Penelo regain her family’s fancy townhouse in the north end of Rabanastre. Noah moved into a room on the ground floor of the townhouse. That room had previously been an indoor plant nursery/sunroom, and the walls had been painted with detailed frescos of flower gardens with exotic birds. This room was converted into a bedroom for Noah because the plant nursery/sunroom had a large washroom adjacent to it-and together these two rooms could be quickly and easily set up for handicap (wheelchair) access. Penelo and Migelo quickly picked out most of the initial furnishings and linens. Despite being in a city townhouse, the decor had the feel of a room in a country house that belonged to landed gentry: elegant yet rustic. Noah quickly added his own personal touches: two bronze lamps, a fine leather bag from Rozarria to hold his shaving supplies, a nail clipper with a carved ivory handle, a mirror in a stately bronze frame.
---
Headcanon Index
All 50 Questions
Crossposted at http://vieralynn.dreamwidth.org/166356.html.
In certain cases, bedroom descriptions include or morph into apartment or house descriptions because that is more appropriate. (This post is far longer than most that will come, which is why it took me a while. ^^)
= DRACE =
Drace has a sizable apartment on the south-east side of the Archadian Palace that she shares with (warning: my headcanon is weird ^^) her husband, Magister Bergan. They’ve known each other since their pre-teen years. Their bedroom is large, airy, and decorated in light, neutral colors. Large windows line the south and east walls of the room, with white sheer fabric curtains. You get the feeling of being up in the sky when in their bedroom-a feeling of being above and removed from the earthly problems that mere mortals in Archades must deal with day to day.
Their king-sized bed has crisp white linens covered with an ecru silk bedspread. A portrait of Bergan’s family hangs on the wall across from a portrait of Drace’s family. She find it creepy that the eyes of her family and Bergan’s family watch her when she sleeps or, worse, when having perfunctory sex with her husband. (Or, even worse yet, while carrying on her affair with Gabranth… One time she threw towels over the portraits because she couldn’t stand their accusatory eyes watching her.)
= PENELO =
Penelo’s bedroom in her family’s home before Archadia invaded Dalmasca was a sunny room on the third floor of a townhouse in the north end of Rabanastre. The room had windows facing south and east. The morning sun always woke Penelo up and made her into an early riser. The look of her room would be best described as “intricately organized clutter.” She decorated her room with mementos given to her by her friends and her older brothers, plus a large collection of souvenirs her father brought back when traveling for business. One of her favorite possessions was a beautifully detailed, colorful paper kite that her father brought back from Bhujerba. It hung from the ceiling of her room. She had a set of cockatrice plushy dolls that sit on her bed: a big papa cockatrice, a chubby mama cockatrice, and three round baby cockatrices. These dolls are ridiculously cute.
At age thirteen Penelo became interested in making herbal potions. Her mother helped her set up a workbench in one corner of her room where Penelo dried medicinal plants and prepared herbal medicines. Over the next two years, her medicinal chemistry workbench grew in size. Rows of brightly colored glass phials holding tinctures sat in the east-facing windows sill.
When Archadia invaded Dalmasca, Penelo lost her family, their townhouse, almost all of her possessions (although she would trade anything to get her family back). During those next two years, she lived in tiny room above Migelo’s shop and absolutely everything she owned fit into a small trunk next to her bed.
After Archadia withdrew from Dalmasca, Penelo continued to live above Migelo’s shop for the next six months until she* was able to get legal paperwork proving that her family’s town home is rightfully hers. All of her prior possessions were missing, presumably removed or thrown out by the Archadian family that lived in her home during the two years of occupation. She initially paid little attention to her room because she was far more worried about getting some of the orphans settled in (Filo, Kytes), and taking care of cranky, ill-tempered, paraplegic Noah. Eventually she decorated her room with Bhujerban style furnishings - low wooden frames carved with a folk-art style and an overabundance of colorful pillows - although she often slept at least half of each night in a chaise lounge in Noah’s room. …And, as time passed, in Noah’s bed.
* Technically, it was Noah who handled the legal paperwork that returned Penelo’s property to her. My headcanon has one odd little addition: Basch & Larsa put near-death!Noah in Penelo’s care. Noah survived thanks to Penelo’s care but that injuries he received from Vayne left the lower half of Noah’s body paralyzed.
=BASCH & NOAH =
- Basch & Noah’s shared bedroom during childhood -
During childhood, Basch and Noah shared a bedroom in their family’s manor. From the outside, the manor looks imposing because it rises up from the hill that it is built on top of, and it is surrounded by a heavy wall, with the village of Ronsenburg around it (Ronsenburg is a small port city-and barely a city at all, as it is really more of a village, although it does have a proper city wall around it, and the manor is more of a house than a castle, yet the manor is substantial in size).
The walls of the manor are heavy stone, and many of the private rooms are small and the bedroom that the twins shared was only large enough for two beds, two small desks, and one wardrobe. The room had one narrow window facing west. A handwoven woolen rug covered the space on the floor between their beds (Noah’s bed ran against the room’s north wall, Basch’s against the south wall) and their two dog slept in their room, on that rug. Basch’s side of the room always looked lived in, if not a bit messy. Noah’s side was always neatly in order. During the cold half of the year, their room was very drafty and, when they were young, Noah and Basch often slept in the same bed so they wouldn’t freeze in the middle of the night. Once they were well into their teens, Noah and Basch were far more likely to let their dogs sleep with them in their respective beds on cold winter nights. For both of them, their bedroom was primarily for sleeping and most of their other activities were carried out elsewhere.
(Noah did manage to impregnate a girl on Basch’s bed, while Basch wasn’t there. Landis was edging toward civil war just before Archades invaded. For political reasons, Basch was being betrothed to the daughter of another manor lord but Basch felt forced into the situation and was concerned about the hurried nature of the match given that the girl’s family had “temporarily” fled their demesne because of a peasant revolt. The girl was desperate, Noah was willing, one thing led to another, and… as it ended up, Basch was officially betrothed to her once she was officially declared pregnant. >_<)
- Basch in Dalmasca -
Basch spent almost 10 years (ack… I would need to dig through my fiction to figure out the exact number of years) living in the Dalmascan Royal Military barracks, although a significant portion of those nights were spent sleeping under the stars or in a tent while patrolling trade routes in the estersands or westersands. All of Basch’s important belongings fit inside his pack.
When Basch and Vossler were both promoted to the rank of Captain, they received a sizable suite of rooms in the Royal Palace, housed in the same wing as the royal family. (Vossler was tasked with guarding the royal family. Basch was promoted to commanding one of the divisions of the royal army.) The rooms in their spacious suite were decorated richly in Galtean style. Basch spent little time in his palace suite. Instead, he was often with “his men” - the battalion of soldiers under his command - either out on a mission, in their barracks, or even renting rooms in the Sandsea. Basch’s hands-on approach to being an army captain is largely the reason why he was known as a hero of the people.
- Noah in Archades -
Upon arriving in Archades late in 687 O.V., Noah and his mother moved into a run down apartment in a building owned by Noah’s uncle (his mother’s brother). His uncle was a “slum lord” who owned a half dozen apartment buildings in the seediest parts of Archades. Noah and his mother received free rent in exchange for acting as the manager for their apartment block. The job was a terrible nightmare because many of the tenants were deadbeats, and there were problems with domestic violence, crime, and vandalism. Noah’s bedroom was a horrid, little grey room that smelled like mold. He lived there for a year that he greatly prefers to forget.
Shortly after Noah’s mother died, he received a full scholarship to study at the Akademy and he immediately packed his few belongings and moved into a dormitory bedroom that he shared with five other Akademy students. Noah was quick to claim the upper bunk bed close to the window. He was able to claim the “best bunk” because he was two years older than the other freshmen and, despite him being a Landiser, his other roommates found respect for him because Noah had “lived a real life” - Noah had gone on hunts and fought in battles in Landis, he had gotten a girl pregnant, and he lived the adventure of fleeing the Landis war. Thus, his roommates saw him as a real combat veteran, which earned Noah enough status to claim the best bunk. No one in his dorm room touched Noah’s things, ever, without asking his permission.
Noah’s final year at the Akademy was fraught with difficulties because he was assigned to a secret military mission that provided aid for one of Dr. Cid’s more questionable experiments. Noah actually had the balls to refuse on moral grounds and ask for a transfer. He thought he was doing the right thing but he was rewarded (*cough*) by being “granted” temporary leave from the Akademy until his case was reviewed (note: because Noah was on full scholarship when putting Dr. Cid’s work in question, the Akademy administrators put a hold on his scholarship and stipend. Had he been the son of a wealthy and powerful family, the situation might have played out very differently for Noah and for Dr. Cid). Noah was effectively tossed out on the street. The only connection that Noah had outside of the Akademy (beyond his slum lord uncle) was the YPA Shipwrights because, as an Akademy student, he had worked with some of the engineers at YPA on the design and configuration of surveillance systems outfitted on airships. Thus, he swallowed his pride (in one big lump that stuck in his throat) and went to YPA to beg for any kind of assistance they would give him: drafting work, a small loan for rent, anything.
Fran offered Noah a spare key to her apartment in Trant and crash space on her sofa. She figured that Noah would only stay for a few days, perhaps a week at most. Instead, Noah ended up living with Fran for almost seven years. (He also finished his education at the Akademy, but using his own money.) Noah’s bedroom in Fran’s Trant apartment was cluttered but very meticulously organized. Every item had its place and every inch of space was put to use. Their bedroom looked like a cross between an engineer’s workbench, a curio shop, an academic library, and a place for sleeping. One day in the year 700 O.V., Fran disappeared rather suddenly (as did a prototype reconnaissance airship, and Dr. Cid’s third son). At that point, Noah Gabranth was working for the 9th bureau as a upper-mid-level analyst who was responsible for managing the Western Landis Provincial intelligence desk. The sudden disappearance of a stolen top secret reconnaissance airship (along with Fran, a contractor who worked for YPA Shipwrights, plus Judge Ffamran Bunansa) resulted in a hush-hush investigation and, as Fran’s longtime live-in partner, Gabranth’s loyalties to the 9th were called into question. After he was deemed innocent of any wrongdoing, he was offered a fast path to a series of promotions in the 9th that would lead him to becoming a magister a few years later.
Immediately upon accepting this offer, Judge Gabranth moved into the Imperial Palace and was housed in the high security quarters offered to top-level judges and military commanders. Each time Judge Gabranth’s rank and responsibilities increased, his housing assignment improved. When he earned the rank of a full Judge Magister (in 704 O.V.), Gabranth moved into a 200 sq meter (~2150 sq foot) penthouse apartment with double-height ceilings, expansive views of the Archadian city skyline, and a small but beautifully maintained enclosed courtyard garden. His bedroom, like the rest of his apartment, was decorated with elegant furnishings, tasteful pieces of art, and silk rugs with intricate hand-knotted patterns. Absolutely everything was immaculately maintained thanks to the maid service and his manservant. Yet, the apartment lacked any sense of a personal touch. Absolutely nothing in the apartment had been picked out or purchased by Gabranth himself.
- The After Year -
When Basch took up the role of Judge Magister Gabranth, he moved into the swank penthouse in the Imperial Palace and slowly, over the years, added personal touches to the bedroom and other rooms in the apartment: traditional tapestries from Landis and Dalmasca, rustic works of folk art from Bhujerba, and the world’s most comfortable leather lounge chair.
Immediately after Vayne’s defeat, Noah spent three weeks in a near-death state. Once it was clear to Penelo that Noah’s condition had stabilized, she had him moved to a storeroom behind Migelo’s shop. Thus began war criminal!paraplegic!Noah’s new life… He eventually helped Penelo regain her family’s fancy townhouse in the north end of Rabanastre. Noah moved into a room on the ground floor of the townhouse. That room had previously been an indoor plant nursery/sunroom, and the walls had been painted with detailed frescos of flower gardens with exotic birds. This room was converted into a bedroom for Noah because the plant nursery/sunroom had a large washroom adjacent to it-and together these two rooms could be quickly and easily set up for handicap (wheelchair) access. Penelo and Migelo quickly picked out most of the initial furnishings and linens. Despite being in a city townhouse, the decor had the feel of a room in a country house that belonged to landed gentry: elegant yet rustic. Noah quickly added his own personal touches: two bronze lamps, a fine leather bag from Rozarria to hold his shaving supplies, a nail clipper with a carved ivory handle, a mirror in a stately bronze frame.
---
Headcanon Index
All 50 Questions
Crossposted at http://vieralynn.dreamwidth.org/166356.html.